BOSTON -- State officials whose agencies serve people with disabilities outlined for lawmakers Wednesday their efforts to prevent and respond to abuse against that population, particularly highlighting efforts to address sexual assault.

Speaking at an oversight hearing held by the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, Jane Ryder, the acting commissioner of the Department of Developmental Services, described a training program she called a "national model."

Since 2007, Ryder said, about 4,800 people have participated in "Awareness in Action," which teaches people with disabilities to recognize, report and respond to abuse. "The project did a wonderful thing by hiring our own self-advocates, the people we support, to provide this training to their peers," she said.

On other fronts, Ryder said DDS has worked with rape crisis centers to inform them of the additional issues facing people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The department has worked with the Disabled Persons Protection Commission to clarify and simplify the abuse reporting threshold and create new training for mandated reporters, she said.

"This work will continue, but I want to emphasize whenever there is an allegation of sexual abuse, we take immediate protective action," Ryder said. "The individual is immediately provided medical care, and the alleged abuser is immediately removed."

Asked by Rep. Paul Schmid about the salaries for care providers and group home staff, Ryder said pay has gone up in the past few years, but the field faces an "overall workforce issue.

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"We're having a hard time finding people to work in our programs," she said. "There are pockets of the state, especially around Cape Cod and maybe in northern central Massachusetts, there are pockets of the state where we are having a difficult, difficult time finding staff to do the work."

Rep. Will Crocker, a Barnstable Republican, said he has "most definitely" noticed the problem on Cape Cod, attributing it mainly to a shortage of workforce housing. He said that, even in the winter, as he drives Route 6 to Boston at 6:30 a.m. to get to the State House, he sees a line of cars traveling in the opposite direction.

"They're not coming onto the Cape for golf," Crocker said. "They're coming for work, because they can't afford to live on the Cape."

Sen. Joan Lovely thanked Ryder for the department's efforts to train staff and people with disabilities on how to respond to alleged sexual abuse.

"This is a population that we know are so vulnerable, just like a child," said Lovely, who co-chairs the committee with Rep. Kay Khan, said.

Lovely, a Salem Democrat, said she has two nephews, aged 28 and 30, who are in the system and live at home because their parents are hesitant to put them in group homes.

"They want the assurance that they're not going to be sexually abused," Lovely said.

The Disabled Persons Protection Commission, an independent state agency, received more than 18,000 calls to its abuse reporting hotline in fiscal 2017, commission executive director Nancy Alterio said.

She said more than 11,400 were defined as abuse allegations, though not all fell within the commission's jurisdiction and those that did not were sent to other relevant agencies.

"Any time there's an allegation of sexual assault committed against a person with a disability, that particular unit specializes in making sure that those victims have information on trauma services that are available within the commonwealth and help them get access to those trauma services, because persons with disabilities suffer from trauma as do people without disabilities," she said.

Ryder declined to answer specific questions from Lovely regarding an incident last year in her district when a resident of a Peabody group home suffered medical complications after inhaling a piece of birthday cake. A report by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission found that the home's staff failed to ensure he was using a doctor-ordered machine to treat sleep apnea and did not follow up on medical treatment advice.

Lovely said she did not want to put Ryder "on the hot seat," and thanked Alterio for the thoroughness of the commission's report.

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